Events & Classes

11 Aug Wake Up Energised! Morning breathing exercises

You’ll be amazed at how doing just 5 minutes of morning breathing exercises first thing can transform your energy levels and make you feel so much more awake and ready for your day.

In yoga these breathing exercises are called ‘pranayama’. Prana in Sanskrit means vital energy and the practice of pranayama is a powerful way to supercharge your whole body with energy.

Try these 5 breathing exercises for 5 mins every morning for a week and you’ll feel for yourself the deeply grounding, invigorating and uplifting effects.

These morning breathing exercises are best practiced first thing when you’ve just woken up and before you’ve eaten anything. You can sit in bed, on the floor or on a chair, just make sure you’re comfortable and able to sit up straight.

The insight timer app is a great tool for this practice. You can set it to 5 minutes with a chime each minute to tell you when to move on to the next breathing exercise. You could also use a stop watch (probably the one on your phone) and move on every minute to the next exercise.

Would you like more guidance to make these morning breathing exercises even easier (with no need for you to read or time anything)? I’ve recorded a free audio teaching to guide you through the breath practice below. Just pop your details in to the sign up box here and I’ll email it over to you.

Energising Morning Breathing Exercises

Spend 1 minute on each breathing exercise.

3 Part Breathing – dirgha pranayama

As you take a deep breath in through your nose focus on breathing deeply in to your belly, expanding it like a balloon.

As you continue to breathe in expand the breath to fill your chest and feel your rib cage expanding.

Finally for the last part of your inhale visualise breathing up to your collar bones and feel your upper chest expand.

As you breathe out feel the breath leaving first your collarbone and upper chest, then rib cage and finally the belly, letting them drop and relax.

Keep each breath smooth and deep and don’t struggle or force the breath. Just breathe as deeply as you can and enjoy the feeling of expansion and space in the lungs. Energising you for your whole day ahead.

Ocean Breathing –ujayi pranayama

Continue to breathe deeply as in your 3 part breathing.

Create a slight constriction at the back of your throat so you hear a HAAAAAA sound as you breathe in and out.*

Listen to the sound of your breath rolling in and out like an ocean wave or the sound of holding a shell to your ear.

*If you’re new to Ujayi breath begin by breathing in through your nose and out your mouth. Think about creating the HAAA sound like a big sigh, or fogging up a mirror, as you exhale. When you’ve mastered this close your mouth and continue to breath in the same way through your nose first on the exhale and then when you’ve got the hang of that on both the inhale and exhale.

Skull Shining Breath – khapalabati pranayama

Take a comfortable breath in through your nose.

Begin short sharp exhales out of your nose, drawing your belly in quickly as you breathe out to help fully expel the air from your lungs.

Your inhale is a passive reaction to this sharp exhale. As your belly relaxes the inhale will naturally follow.

Chanting Breathing – udgeeth pranayama

Breath out and as you do chant the word Om (AUM). Make sure to keep the sound of “O” long and the “M” short (OOOOOOOOm).

Don’t worry at all about how you sound here. Enjoy the wonderful feeling of combining sound and breath.

Breath Meditation – anapanasati

Let your breath flow naturally now with no effort at all.

Take your full attention to your breath.

Focus completely on your breath, letting everything else drop away.

Sit here in silent meditation for a minute or as long as you like.

Would you like extra guidance on completing these breathing practices? does it feel like a lot to take in all at once!? Confused about exactly how you should be doing the breathing exercises!? I’ve recorded a full audio guide to the above practices so you can listen to me guide you through the exercises without having to read or time anything. Just fill in your details in the box here and it’ll be sent straight over to you.

How do you feel after trying these morning breathing exercises? Energised, uplifted, calm or relaxed? Leave a quick comment below and let me know. I truly love hearing from you.

Ready for a longer yoga practice? What would be SO cool is if you practiced these breathing exercises and then went on to do my simple morning yoga routine afterwards! Have a great day yogis and if you’re not already signed up to my newsletter to receive cool stuff like this every week, well, what are you waiting for! Click here to sign up right now.

Emma Lindsay

I’ve been doing five minutes of breathing exercises when I first wake up (after feeding the cat) since I got your email. I am really loving this new start to the day. It’s taking on a very meditative role in my mornings and meaning I feel calm and focused as I start my morning.

Brilliant! That’s so great to hear Emma. I’m really glad you’ve been enjoying practicing the morning breathing exercises. I think they are such a wonderful way to start the day and so simple once you’ve practiced them a few times, really pleased you like them too 🙂 I’m thinking of creating a 5 min evening one too so look out for that!